Scientists have found the cause of China's prehistoric floods. No wonder Dayu was successful in controlling floods

About 4,000 years ago, a flood rarely seen in the world swept across the land of the Huaxia Alliance. The mountains trembled in the waves, the land groaned in the great changes, and the people struggled in the flood. "Records of the Grand Historian" said, "The flood was so great that it surged up to the sky, and the mountains and hills were flooded. The people were worried."

Therefore, Emperor Yao first sent Gun to control the floods, but Gun’s work for nine years had no effect, and he was executed by the regent Shun. Later, Shun recommended Dayu to control the floods. "Historical Records" said, "Yu was sad that his ancestor Gun was executed for his failure to accomplish his mission, so he worked hard and worried, lived away from home for thirteen years, and dared not enter his home." In the end, Dayu controlled the floods for 13 years and successfully controlled the floods by dredging. Because Dayu successfully controlled the floods and benefited the people, he was recommended as the new generation leader of the Huaxia Alliance, thus opening the prelude to the Xia Dynasty.

The problem is that the history books do not mention extreme rainfall. What exactly caused this prehistoric flood? Gun and Dayu controlled the flood for 22 years. Why did the flood last so long? When scientists studied China's climate change over the past 5,000 years, they finally discovered the truth, which also revealed a key reason why Dayu was able to successfully control the flood.

As the saying goes, "A wild goose leaves traces, a wind leaves sounds", ancient climate change also leaves traces. High-precision and high-resolution paleoclimate records are preserved in ice cores, loess, deep-sea sediments, and stalagmites, which are the "four pillars" for paleoclimate and paleoenvironment reconstruction. Modern climatologists have uncovered the truth about China's prehistoric flood through stalagmite research.

Tan Liangcheng, a researcher at the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, found through stalagmites that overall precipitation gradually decreased from 5700 to 4300 years ago, and then gradually increased until 3900 years ago. Among them, it is particularly noteworthy that the stalagmites of Wuya Cave in Gansu revealed that about 4000 years ago (±48 years), an extreme heavy rainfall event lasted for about 20 years occurred on the Loess Plateau.

The Loess Plateau is located in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. When there is continuous extreme rainfall in the upper reaches, it will inevitably lead to continuous flooding in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. In the most extreme cases, it will cause the Yellow River to change its course. According to historical records, when the water flow in the upper reaches is too fast, it often causes the Yellow River to change its course. The Yellow River has changed its course six times in the lower reaches, and each change of course will bring a major disaster.

The question is, does the extreme rainfall about 4,000 years ago have anything to do with Dayu's flood control?

From a geographical point of view, Dayu's tribe is roughly located in the Heluo area, or in the southern part of Shanxi, or in the Jishui area of ​​Shandong. The exact location is still controversial, but it is basically in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. The 20 years of continuous extreme heavy rainfall will undoubtedly cause the Yellow River to be overwhelmed, causing a large area around the Yellow River to become a swamp. In other words, Dayu's tribe is located in a flood-prone area.

In terms of the time of occurrence, the Xia, Shang and Zhou Chronology Project inferred that "the Xia Dynasty was established around 2070 BC", while the extremely heavy rainfall occurred 4000 years ago (±48 years), which is very close in time. According to historical records, China only had one major flood that lasted for many years around 4000 years ago.

From the perspective of flood control time, Emperor Yao sent Gun to control floods for nine years, and Regent Shun sent Dayu to control floods for thirteen years. The two men controlled floods for a total of 22 years, which basically coincides with the 20-year continuous heavy rainfall. Therefore, this confirms the authenticity of the history of Gun and Dayu controlling floods, Emperor Yao, Emperor Shun, and even the Xia Dynasty.

All signs indicate that the flood that Dayu controlled was the great flood caused by 20 years of continuous heavy rainfall in the upper reaches of the Yellow River.

More importantly, the research conclusions of climate experts, in addition to confirming historical records, also explain the key reasons why Gun failed to control the flood and why Dayu was able to successfully control the flood.

According to legend, Gun used the method of "blocking" to control floods, while Dayu used the method of "taking advantage of the situation" to control floods. Different methods of controlling floods led to different results. Throughout the ages, people have been accustomed to praising Dayu's method of dredging, and attributed the success of flood control entirely to "dredging."

But considering the level of productivity at the time, with continuous extremely heavy rainfall and endless floods, no matter what methods Gun used to control the water, even if he adopted the method of "drainage", he might not succeed.

Why did Dayu fail to control the flood in the previous ten years when he adopted the correct method of dredging? The heavy rainfall stopped in the 20th year, and Dayu succeeded in controlling the flood in the 22nd year. So is there any connection between the two? Obviously, the cessation of heavy rainfall was the key reason for Dayu's success in controlling the flood.

Of course, this does not negate the contribution of Dayu's flood control ideas, but rather objectively analyzes the fundamental reasons for his success in flood control. According to the conclusion of climatologists, there are two key reasons for Dayu's success in flood control, namely, the cessation of heavy rainfall and the flood control idea of ​​"taking advantage of the situation".

From the above, we can see that the "prehistoric flood" in ancient Chinese history was caused by 20 years of heavy rainfall in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, which led to long-term flood disasters in the lower reaches. It took two generations of people, Gun and Dayu, 22 years to control the flood. Finally, after the heavy rainfall stopped, Dayu was able to successfully control the flood.

References: "What is the truth behind Dayu's flood control? Restore the history of my country's climate more than 4,200 years ago to find the answer", "Historical Records", etc.